Last Thursday I observed period 1, who today are learning about the mole. Students come in and sit down quietly. As Dr. Pothier is taking attendance she asks students to open their books and read the introduction on the mole. Students read the introduction and begin talking as they are finishing. Some students are eating in class and are told as a whole that this is unacceptable and to put it away. Dr. Potheir then begins to introduce the mole as a number similar to one dozen eggs. She lectures for about 10-15 minutes about how to use the mole to convert to and from mass of, volume of, and number of representative particles of different substances. While she is doing this she is walking around making sure that students are accurately recording the notes that she is providing. During this time a student catches a mistake in Dr. Pothier's notes, showing that they are infact paying attention. In between examples of molar mass conversions, Dr. Pothier explains the mathematical logic of each answer and poses the questions "does this sound reasonable? and why? At this point students are completely engaged and appear motivated to learn about the mole as many of the side conversations are about the material being presented. Dr. Pothier continues to give students examples of mole conversions and is emphasizing conceptual understanding by showing that units should cancel if the problem has been set up correctly. One student does not appear to be taking notes and is squinting at the board a little. He doesn't seem able to see the examples well enough to copy them down and has to be told to copy the examples and move up closer to the board if necessary. Dr. Pothier is not combining concepts of each conversion to make a more challenging conversion. Most of the students appear to be handeling the material well although a few are having trouble with starting the problem. It is more than halfway through the period now and students are begining to get off topic. Dr. Pothier "brings them back" and says that they are being entirely too loud. Students are now being asked to solve problems up on the board. As they are doing this Dr. Pothier is answering questions. Towards the end of class she gives students a homework assignment, which is followed by multiple groans. Dr. Pothier takes a moment to acknowledge that students have their materials and says that they did well today. There is at most two minutes of dead time at the conclusion of the class and students use this time to collect and pack up their materials.
Reflections:
In general, at the begining of each class Dr. Pothier takes attendance and gives students something to do (i.e. a reading assignment, practice problems, etc.). Then either new material is presented or older material is revisited and worked on. She also advises the students in advance when they will be moving on to new material and that they are responsible for knowing what they have been working on. While notes are being given, Dr. Pothier gives students time to write examples down and as they are doing this moves around the room making sure they are accurately recording the information being presented. I believe that this is a good way to catch misconceptions before they arise due to the fact that if a student as recorded a concept inaccurately then they will undoubtedly have a difficult time understanding it correctly. Misconceptions may still occur but at least it will not be because of something simple like copying material incorrectly. I have noticed that the majority of the time in Dr. Pothier's class is spent doing examples and practicing problems. Students often make use of this time by asking questions and determining what they do not understand. I find that it is common for a student to simply say "I don't get it", without being able to explain what "it" is they don't understand. This can be frustrating for a teacher especially a begining teacher. I believe the way to solve this is to leave ample time after a topic, such as the mole, for practice and repitition so that students can discover where they are having trouble. Teachers can try to anticipate where students may have a problem understanding; however, all students learn things differently and will have different questions depending on their previous knowledge. In general, you do not usually see very much "dead time", if any at all, in Dr. Pothier's classes. Any time left at then end of the period usually depends on how well the class was able to perform on a particular day. In the case of the account above students did relatively well absorbing the material presented and were able to have a few minutes at the end of class to pack up their things and talk quietly. Some might look at this as a reward for doing well that day, I see it as students that are a few minutes ahead of where they were anticipated to be (which is good). It is also very common that, depending on how the class went (if they are ready for a homework assignment or not), Dr. Pothier will assign problems or reading for homework. I plan to practice a fairly consistent pattern of instruction when it comes to homework. Despite the fact that I'm sure not every student will take the initiative to do this, I will give the students a reading assignment which will cover material that I will be going over in class the following day. This gives them the opportunity to expose themselves to the material before it is presented to them. After instruction I intend to spent a great deal of time practicing problems and applying the concepts that I have just presented to these problems. Ideally, using this as a base of instruction and incorporating engagement activities such as labs/hands-on activities I hope to produce a smoother transition of information from teacher to student.
Class Topic: The Mole
Grade: Twelfth
Observed by: Matthew Hooper
Observations:
Last Thursday I observed period 1, who today are learning about the mole. Students come in and sit down quietly. As Dr. Pothier is taking attendance she asks students to open their books and read the introduction on the mole. Students read the introduction and begin talking as they are finishing. Some students are eating in class and are told as a whole that this is unacceptable and to put it away. Dr. Potheir then begins to introduce the mole as a number similar to one dozen eggs. She lectures for about 10-15 minutes about how to use the mole to convert to and from mass of, volume of, and number of representative particles of different substances. While she is doing this she is walking around making sure that students are accurately recording the notes that she is providing. During this time a student catches a mistake in Dr. Pothier's notes, showing that they are infact paying attention. In between examples of molar mass conversions, Dr. Pothier explains the mathematical logic of each answer and poses the questions "does this sound reasonable? and why? At this point students are completely engaged and appear motivated to learn about the mole as many of the side conversations are about the material being presented. Dr. Pothier continues to give students examples of mole conversions and is emphasizing conceptual understanding by showing that units should cancel if the problem has been set up correctly. One student does not appear to be taking notes and is squinting at the board a little. He doesn't seem able to see the examples well enough to copy them down and has to be told to copy the examples and move up closer to the board if necessary. Dr. Pothier is not combining concepts of each conversion to make a more challenging conversion. Most of the students appear to be handeling the material well although a few are having trouble with starting the problem. It is more than halfway through the period now and students are begining to get off topic. Dr. Pothier "brings them back" and says that they are being entirely too loud. Students are now being asked to solve problems up on the board. As they are doing this Dr. Pothier is answering questions. Towards the end of class she gives students a homework assignment, which is followed by multiple groans. Dr. Pothier takes a moment to acknowledge that students have their materials and says that they did well today. There is at most two minutes of dead time at the conclusion of the class and students use this time to collect and pack up their materials.Reflections:
In general, at the begining of each class Dr. Pothier takes attendance and gives students something to do (i.e. a reading assignment, practice problems, etc.). Then either new material is presented or older material is revisited and worked on. She also advises the students in advance when they will be moving on to new material and that they are responsible for knowing what they have been working on. While notes are being given, Dr. Pothier gives students time to write examples down and as they are doing this moves around the room making sure they are accurately recording the information being presented. I believe that this is a good way to catch misconceptions before they arise due to the fact that if a student as recorded a concept inaccurately then they will undoubtedly have a difficult time understanding it correctly. Misconceptions may still occur but at least it will not be because of something simple like copying material incorrectly. I have noticed that the majority of the time in Dr. Pothier's class is spent doing examples and practicing problems. Students often make use of this time by asking questions and determining what they do not understand. I find that it is common for a student to simply say "I don't get it", without being able to explain what "it" is they don't understand. This can be frustrating for a teacher especially a begining teacher. I believe the way to solve this is to leave ample time after a topic, such as the mole, for practice and repitition so that students can discover where they are having trouble. Teachers can try to anticipate where students may have a problem understanding; however, all students learn things differently and will have different questions depending on their previous knowledge. In general, you do not usually see very much "dead time", if any at all, in Dr. Pothier's classes. Any time left at then end of the period usually depends on how well the class was able to perform on a particular day. In the case of the account above students did relatively well absorbing the material presented and were able to have a few minutes at the end of class to pack up their things and talk quietly. Some might look at this as a reward for doing well that day, I see it as students that are a few minutes ahead of where they were anticipated to be (which is good). It is also very common that, depending on how the class went (if they are ready for a homework assignment or not), Dr. Pothier will assign problems or reading for homework. I plan to practice a fairly consistent pattern of instruction when it comes to homework. Despite the fact that I'm sure not every student will take the initiative to do this, I will give the students a reading assignment which will cover material that I will be going over in class the following day. This gives them the opportunity to expose themselves to the material before it is presented to them. After instruction I intend to spent a great deal of time practicing problems and applying the concepts that I have just presented to these problems. Ideally, using this as a base of instruction and incorporating engagement activities such as labs/hands-on activities I hope to produce a smoother transition of information from teacher to student.Class Topic: The Mole
Grade: Twelfth
Observed by: Matthew Hooper